Dear Mr. Line, The project team at "Bev and Sean's Travels" has received your change request. We thank you for your interest in our services. We are pleased to let you know that your feature enhancement request has been approved, and it will be applied to all data entered into the system from this point forward. Due to cost and schedule constraints, existing data in the system will not be migrated to accommodate the new feature. It has been a pleasure serving you, and we looking forward to a strong business partnership for many years to come. Your invoice will be coming shortly. Payment is due net negative ten. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Oh man...he's still got it, baby. BAM! Check out the Luang Prabang photo album...dated just for you. Request makes sense. Just busting chops above. ;) Cheers, Sean Poris, Chief Research Officer for New Interesting Enhancements (CRONIE) working for Beverly Blank Enterprises

"Vientiane, capital of Laos is Asia's biggest village. Busy and hectic in comparison to the rest of the country, it is quiet compared with any other city in Asia. Vientiane, as all of Lao's major cities, is situated on the Mekong river which forms the lifeline of the country. Vientiane is the hub for all travel in the country. The city has a population of 450,000, about 10% of the country."

Hey guys! Just catching up a bit and thought I'd post a request that maybe you could fulfill on a slow day. :-) Any way you could prefix a time/date stamp to the front of each photo album name? This way folks that can't remember every city name and when you saw it can roughly correlate the photos to what you've done over a series of days. If it's a hassle, no sweat. It's just for lazy people like me! Cheers! Aric

Ella-- Don't worry--we are VERY WARY of foods that crunch! We definitely learned our lesson the hard way. :) We hope that it is warming up so you can go out and play in the snow! We know you love being outside!! We are doing well here. We are heading to Hanoi tomorrow and we will write from there. Please say hi to your Mom and Dad for us! We love you and miss you lots and we can't wait to see all your new tricks when we get home!! Love, Aunt Bev and Uncle Sean

Love your updates. We have been strung out waiting for details on your location and latest adventures. It has been hard to sleep at night without having our bedtime Bev/Sean stories =) These teasers that you send every few days make our addiction even worse and don't get us started about the message board. Ella is happy to hear that you are loving your trip. She cannot wait to show you all of her new tricks when you come home. She wants you to be wary of foods that crunch!!! Love from Michigan

Duuuuuuudes, thanks for answering my questions. Nothing upsets me more than when people don't answer my questions. You obviously didn't want to see what would happen. It's kind of like when I get poked in the ribs. So, the family headed up to NJ this past weekend to see Susie and Todd. Lucy, their HUGE black and white Newfoundland dog passed away this past week. She was 13 or so. Todd I think was hit particularly hard. Anyway, the Navesink river has 8.5" of ice on it so we busted out the ice boats! Todd and a buddy own one so we headed out there Saturday to show the scene to Ryleigh (Spencer was napping). There were dozens and dozens of families. The dads were assembling and tending to their ice boats (imagine a small light craft with a big sail and three 2' long 1/4" stainless steel blades that contact the ice in a triangle) while the kids skated around, played ice hockey, etc. These things were nuts! We must have been pulling a few Gs when we cornered. I'm pretty good at estimating speed from racing and I guarentee you we hit 50+ mph a few times. The wind was RIPPIN'. The faster an ice boat goes the more forward thrust it's sail can create. Very cool physics. Like lift on a plane wing basically but forward instead of up. It's been below freezing for probably two weeks now. During the day it might touch 34 or something. Can't ride to work obviously which blows. The 5" of snow and ice we got is now just 4" of super compact ice. I couldn't shovel my driveway due to so much work and the fact that it froze quickly after it fell so I just drive on top of it and it doesn't even compress. I delivered the first of my three training courses. Went pretty well. Sent out a formal survey and all to get feedback. Deliver the second one this week. I will have time to catch up with pics and such on Wednesday. Looking forward to it!

Was going to respond to your questions via email, but we thought it would be more fun to just slap them in here: Whaddup, Inquisitive Boy? You are awesome!!! What a great post. Okay, here are some responses in ALL CAPS: Hey guys, I just did some catching up on your adventures! Man. Looks awesome. So, I have a bunch of random questions for you...imagine, me, questions? Go figure. When you were on your trek and you slept on the bamboo mats in that shelter...why was there newspaper tacked up to the lower and upper walls all the way around the room? And how well did you sleep on the mats? WE WONDERED THAT OURSELVES AND JUST FORGOT TO ASK. I ASSUME IT WAS EITHER BECAUSE WIND OR RAIN SOMETIMES GOT IN OR MAYBE THEY THOUGHT THE WESTERNERS MIGHT LIKE SOMETHING TO READ. I'M PISSED I FORGOT TO ASK...AND GOOD ATTENTION TO DETAIL, MR ATTIKUS LINIKUS OCTAVIOUS. Super cool to see the elephants bathing when you were rafting. Sorry to hear about your foot, that sounded rough. Glad you didn't lose the leg. So, I've rarely, if ever? seen a mammal hold it's breath and choose to go underwater. The baby elephant is almost totally submerged and his entire trunk is underwater! What's up with that? LEG IS FINE, HOMEY. FOR THE BABY ELEPHANT, I THINK ONE OF TWO THINGS HAPPENED...EITHER HIS TRUNK IS OFF TO THE SIDE, ABOVE THE WATER, OUTSIDE OF THE SHOT...OR IT IS JUST A BRIEF SNAPSHOT IN TIME, AND HIS TRUNK HAD JUST BEEN ABOVE THE WATER, DIPPED BELOW DURING THE SHOT, AND IMMEDIATELY POPPED BACK OUT. THERE WAS A LOT OF MOTION DURING THIS SHOT. And for some reason, I never saw the picks from the Bon Voyage album. The Slumlord Safa slide with the 4 oz of beer for every eviction had me ROLLING. I'm still laughing just typing this. I KNOW, MAN! I LOVED THAT PIC. REALLY MISSED YOU OUT THAT NIGHT, YOU FOOL. WHEN WE GET BACK INTO TOWN, WE'RE COMING OUT TO THE STICKS (AKA LEESBURG) MORE OFTEN AND JUST BRINGING THE PARTY TO YOU, C, AND THE KIDS. THEN YOU, TOO, CAN DRINK MASS QUANTITIES OF BEER AND EVICT PEOPLE. Regarding Thai food, man, you sure have some wacky options. You have got to try to knarly something you'd never imagine eating and Bev can't save you from this one. Eat some sort of entire bug and report back to us. Regarding fruit, are you ODing on fruit or what? That is great, sounds like you eat fruit 10 times a day. You think you'll eat more fruit when you get back here or what? WE DID ACCIDENTALLY EAT PIGS EARS. WE WERE HAVING VIETNAMESE FOOD WITH OUR GUIDE, ANDY, IN MUKDAHAN, ABOUT AN HOUR SOUTH OF HIS VILLAGE. HE SAID IT WAS "PORK AND MUSHROOM" ROLL. IT HAD A CLOVE OF GARLIC IN THE MIDDLE, AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO EAT IT AND THEN THROW PEANUTS, LIME (RIND AND ALL), AND ONIONS INTO YOUR MOUTH. I DID IT, AND THERE WAS AN AWFUL LOT OF CRUNCHING GOING ON. I HOPED IT WAS THE VEGGIES AND NUTS, BUT YEP, WE FOUND OUT LATER IT WAS PIG'S EAR, REPLETE WITH CARTILAGE. I HAVE A GREAT PIC OF BEV ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, LYING DOWN, NOT FEELING SO WELL. I'LL ADD IT TO ONE OF THE PHOTO ALBUMS. AS FAR AS FRUIT GOES...CAN'T GET ENOUGH! WILL PROBABLY EAT MORE FRUIT AT HOME. JUST TRIED A POMELO FOR THE FIRST TIME. IT IS A MILD GRAPEFRUIT, BASICALLY, BUT LESS JUICY. GREAT FLAVOR, PLENTY OF VIT C AND FIBER...A DARNED GOOD TREAT. THERE IS FRUIT EVERYWHERE, AND WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO JUST HAVE IT FOR DESSERT RATHER THAN WESTERN STYLE DESSERT. BEV'S A GOOD INFLUENCE ON ME, BECAUSE THE CREPES, PANCAKES, AND ICE CREAM ALL LOOK GOOD. :) Finally, your stop in Ban Nong Hoi. This is where you're going to teach right? It looks like a great atmosphere to raise kids. Very cool you spoke to the class. I'm sure you had some wise western wisdom to impart like "trombone rules" or "look at my guns" or "GET IN MY BELLLY!" that just blew them away. I wonder how the woman doing the Fat b****** translation into Thai sounded? Good? THEY MENTIONED A FEW TIMES HOW POOR THEY WERE...THAT EACH KID BASICALLY HAS ONE PEN, AND THAT'S IT. THINGS LIKE THAT. BUT WHEN WE LIVED WITH THEM, THEY DIDN'T FEEL POOR TO ME. THEY HAD A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS, ELECTRICITY, WATER, FOOD, AND PLENTY OF HAPPINESS AND ZEST FOR LIFE. THE KIDS WERE ALWAYS SMILING, AND LIFE JUST FELT SO FREAKING RELAXED. IN BED BY 10PM, UP AT 6 (OR 4 IF YOU INCLUDE THE @#$#ING ROOSTERS). FUNNY THING IS, WE COULD HAVE SAID ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, AND WITH OUR ACCENTS, THEY WOULD HAVE HAD NO IDEA IF WE SAID IT JUST A WEE BIT FASTER THAN NORMAL. I DID SAY, "WINNING'S EVERYTHING, CHEATERS PROSPER. USA USA USA HOOAHHHHHH. GO TERPS GO! " WAS THAT BAD? Still in project hell but it's a blast to read your posting and check out the pics. SORRY ABOUT PROJECT NIGHTMARE. HANG IN THERE! GLAD YOU ARE STAYING UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST HAPS OUT HERE. ASIDE...I'M IN AN INTERNET CAFE, AND 4 NOVICE MONKS JUST SAT DOWN ORANGE ROBES AND ALL. I LOVE THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE THAT WE SEE OUT HERE! Enjoy! Aric

hey buddy..you must be posting while I read your journals...good stuff...hi to you both...

Mom- Foot is all healed. No worries. We both feel great! Valentines day was spent in Nong Khai, Thailand at a pretty authentic (read: not very many Westerners there) Thai restaurant and walking around the city. We did treat ourselves to a little ice cream for Valentine's Day, though. We also went out to a nice French restaurant here in Vientiane to more formally celebrate Valentine's day. It was a great meal, but we are so used to se asian food, that the meal felt enormous to us (but really, really good!). We saw the coolest sculpture garden ever in Nong Khai. We'll post pics soon. Blows away the sculpture garden in DC at the Hirshorn (sp?). Anyway, love to everyone! xoxoxox Bev and Sean

What did you all do on Valentines Day? We had Lobster and snow. How is Laos? I saw that you tried to messenger me. Missed me by 1 hour. I am up now by 6am. They are doing my bathroom now. How is your foot Sean? How are you both feeling? Is it that cold that you were bundled up like that Bev? Remember that we love you both and miss you. Love Zoopsie

Great pics of the kids & the market! The kids are adorable! The Kindergarten dance reminds me of a dance I used to see done by Thai women & children at International Day at INTELSAT! Thanks for your Valentine wishes - I think I have turned a corner and am (slowly) getting better. Love you guys!

Line, You are hilarious! We'll take your email off line in another email. Slow that brain of yours down, son. :) Thanks for posting! Cheers, Sean